CHICAGO – It’s wild how a game can change in a blink, the momentum swinging quickly from one team to the other.
That’s exactly what happened as the Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers , 3-1, at Rate Field on Saturday, Sept. 19.
In the top of the sixth inning, the White Sox held a 2-1 lead. But the Tigers had a great scoring opportunity, loading the bases after Riley Greene singled and Max Clark and Ben Malgeri walked. The White Sox left starter Sean Burke in the game to face rookie Brett Callahan. Burke threw a pitch near the dirt and Callahan swung and missed as the ball bounced away. Greene ran home for the apparent score, seemingly tying the game, giving the Tigers a jolt. But a review revealed that after Callahan swung, the ball hit his
foot, making the play dead and forcing Greene to go back to third, taking away the run.
Then, Callahan struck out on a knuckle-curve.
A deflating moment.
So, Jackson Jobe went back to the mound for the Tigers. He was having a fantastic outing, on his way to a career-high nine strikeouts. But on the first pitch of the bottom of the sixth, Miguel Vargas hit a homer, giving the Sox a 3-1 lead.
Game over, more or less. And the streak continued: The Tigers are 0-14 in games decided by two runs or less against AL Central teams on the road.
The loss puts the Tigers (73-82) on the brink of elimination; their "tragic number" – the number of Tigers losses and playoff leader wins needed for Detroit's playoff elimination – shrunk to one in both the American League Central (behind the Cleveland Guardians, who faced the Oakland Athletics later Saturday) and the wild-card race (behind the White Sox).
On the mound: Getting the Jobe done
Jobe was fantastic, even though he had a slow start.
Sam Antonacci opened the game for the White Sox with a grounder up the middle – and it looked like a certain base hit – but Hao-Yu Lee made a wonderful diving play, snagging a grounder, got up and threw him out.
After striking out Teel, Jobe walked Vargas on five pitches. Vargas promptly stole second base – his 20th of the season. Then he scored on a soft single by Munetaka Murakami. Vargas became the first player in White Sox history with 30 doubles, 30 homers, 100 runs and 20 steals.
But after that?
Jobe got on a hot streak. He cruised through four innings, throwing just 65 pitches, recording 12 swings and misses. He had seven strikeouts with just the one first-inning walk and allowed mostly soft contact.
Jobe got into some trouble in the fifth inning after Braden Montgomery hit a ground rule double and Brenton Doyle singled to left. Then, Antonacci hit a sacrifice fly that gave the Sox a 2-1 lead.
Jobe scattered four hits over six innings, recording nine strikeouts and a walk.
At the plate: A big blown chance
The Tigers had a great scoring chance in the fifth inning against Burke.
Ben Malgeri was hit by a pitch, Callahan singled to center and then John Peck had a tremendous plate appearance to earn a seven-pitch walk. That brought up Kevin McGonigle, who hit a sacrifice fly to left, tying the game, 1-1.
The Tigers were down 3-1 in the eighth inning when they had another chance. Greene was hit by a pitch and Max Clark blooped a single into shallow right. The White Sox brought in Grant Taylor to get the final outs and he got Eduardo Valencia to ground out.
In the field: Tigers clean up D
The Tigers played a far cleaner game defensively on Saturday.
So, what did Tigers manager A.J. Hinch tell Peck, playing shortstop, after he committed a couple of errors in one inning against Toronto and then he was picked off on Friday night?
“Don't get picked off,” Hinch said before the game. “We talked to him last night about all that he's learning, and I think he's handled everything very, very well. He's been an incredible defender. I know he had the one inning – one inning in one month here where he's remotely even struggled.”
So, Hinch started Peck at short again on Saturday. Hinch plans to keep playing Peck because he has so much confidence in him.
“I want the ball hit to him, and I keep saying that's the best compliment I’ve given because I think he can convert those ground balls to outs as good as anybody we have.”
The Tigers had three errors in a 5-1 loss against Toronto (two by Peck, one by McGonigle) on Wednesday. Kevin McGonigle had an error in a 3-1 loss against the Sox on Thursday. And they had two errors in an 11-8 win Friday against the Sox – by Gleyber Torres and Leee.
The one miscue was an error by Colt Keith that didn’t hurt them.
Next up: Road warriors no more
With their playoff chances on the line, the Tigers will play their final road game of the season on Sunday (2:10 p.m., Detroit SportsNet). Right-hander Troy Melton (8-4, 2.52 ERA) will get the start for the Tigers and righty Davis Martin (9-7, 3.96) goes for the White Sox.
Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on X @seideljeff
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Costly replay puts Tigers on brink of elimination with L to White Sox
